The Red–Green Alliance^[14][15] or Unity List^[16][17][18] (Danish: Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne,^[19] lit. 'The Unity List – The Red–Greens', abbr. EL) is an eco-socialist political party in Denmark.^[6] It was founded in 1989 with the merger of three Marxist parties^[20] and it is the most left-wing party in the Parliament of Denmark, where it advocates for the expansion of the welfare state and social justice as well as the socialist transformation of Denmark and the entire globe.^[21] During the 2021 Copenhagen City Council election the party placed first, with 24.6% of the votes.^[22] The party is also active in various trade unions within Denmark.^[21][23]

Quick Facts Abbreviation, Leader ...

Red–Green Alliance Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne
Abbreviation	EL Ø [lower-alpha 1]
Leader	Collective leadership
Political spokesperson	Pelle Dragsted
Founded	2 December 1989
Merger of	Left Socialists Communist Party of Denmark Socialist Workers Party Communist Workers Party independents
Headquarters	Studiestræde 24, 1 1455 København K
Youth wing	None (cooperating with RGU and SUF)
Membership (2021)	9,398[1]
Ideology	Socialism[2][3] Anti-capitalism[4] Marxism[5] Eco-socialism[6][7]
Political position	Left-wing[8][9] to far-left[10]
European affiliation	Now the People! Party of the European Left European Anti-Capitalist Left
European Parliament group	The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL[11]
Nordic affiliation	Nordic Green Left Alliance
Colours	Red   Green   Orange (customary)
Folketing	9 / 179[lower-alpha 2]
European Parliament	1 / 14
Regions[12]	12 / 205
Municipalities[13]	109 / 2,432
Election symbol
Website
enhedslisten.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections

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The party describes itself as a democratic and socialist grassroots party, which represents green politics, among the Danish peace, anti-discrimination, and labour movements. The party's ideological position is set out in a manifesto from 2014.^[21] It proposes that a socialistic society of the future "neither can nor should be described in detail, but rather be developed and shaped by the people living in it". It describes socialism as "an answer to the problems caused by capitalism such as non-sufficient democracy, crises, destruction of nature, inequality, racism and war".^[21]

Holding anti-capitalist^[4] and soft Eurosceptic^[6][24][25] views, it states this about the economic system:

A new and actually democratic system of society requires fundamental changes in the ownership of the means of production, such as companies, land and natural resources. Collective forms of ownership will be dominating. We propose that public authorities, co-workers, local communities and other collectives of persons should own and run institutions and companies. ... A democratic economy means a democratic work life as well. The work place should be characterized by democracy, and the employees must have a constitutional right to decisive influence on the organization of work in the workplace.^[21]

The Red–Green Alliance recognizes that methods achieving this may differ depending on the course of class struggle, but will eventually require a revolution—one that must be supported by a majority of the population manifested through democratic and free elections.^[21] The party often adopts particular views in relation to the other parties in the Folketing and opt out of many of the settlements reached, seen as an expression of class collaboration. Until the conditions for the party's long-term goal are presented, the party will use its seats in parliament to vote for any improvement and against any deterioration of working-class people's lives. In line with this, the party agreed at its national conference in 2010 that if Helle Thorning-Schmidt became Prime Minister after the 2011 election, the party would vote for a "red" budget bill that did not contain obvious flaws.

The party was formed in 1989 as an electoral alliance of three left-wing parties: Left Socialists (VS), Communist Party of Denmark (DKP), and Socialist Workers Party (SAP). Originally the plan was to unite these parties alongside The Greens (De Grønne), Common Course, and Humanist to form a broad-based progressive movement, but this did not materialize.^[35] A fourth party, the Communist Workers Party (KAP), succeeded in joining the alliance in 1991, but its involvement was vetoed a year later by DKP.

Prior to the 2007 Danish general election, the party enlisted Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Danish Muslim candidate who identified herself as a feminist, democrat, and socialist.^[36] She is endorsed by some imams, opposed by others (including those in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a fundamentalist organization). She wears a hijab and does not shake hands with men.^[37] These facts, and some of her statements regarding politics and religion, made her the target of some criticism across the political spectrum, particularly from the Danish People's Party. Some left-wing figures cited her candidacy as a reason for withdrawing their support from the party.^[38] An anti-religious network was created within the party with the stated goal of turning the party into a solely atheist party with a materialist–Marxist basis.^[39]

During the campaign, there was some speculation as to whether her candidacy would attract or repel voters.^[40][41] The results of the election were 2.2% for the party, down from 3.4% in the 2005 Danish general election. Although not elected, Abdol-Hamid maintained that she had attracted voters to the party. The four seats won by the party went to Frank Aaen, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, Line Barfod, and Per Clausen.

In the 2011 Danish general election, the party received 6.7% of the vote and tripled its representation from 4 seats to 12 seats.

The party contested the 2013 local elections on a platform of improving public transport and making greater public investment.^[42]

As part of the left-leaning "Red bloc" coalition with the Social Democrats, the Red–Green Alliance accepted the government budget twice and was in opposition twice in the period from 2011 to 2015. But at no point did they report direct opposition to the government. In the 2015 general election, the party received 7.8% of the vote and increased its representation from 12 seats to 14 seats.

The party is the only one in the Folketing which does not have an official party leader, instead having collective leadership. However, since 2009 it has had a political spokesperson, who has served as the party's de facto representative, and serves as its leader in party leader debates.^[43]

• Politics of Denmark
• Pelle Dragsted